Fires in Colorado had reduced more than 100 buildings to cinders, with fire officials saying they were likely to face continued challenges on Thursday as they sought to contain the blazes that had scorched thousands of acres and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes.
What officials have dubbed the Black Forest fire has chewed through wooded residential areas of Colorado Springs, covering between 8,500 and 12,000 acres as of Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
“As you can tell, weather is not working with us, but our guys are giving it a heck of a shot,” El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said. “The challenge we’re facing is a lack of manpower.”
The fire had destroyed 92 houses and damaged five more as of noon local time on Wednesday, according to a count kept by the sheriff’s office. Among those was the home of Jaenette Coyle, who watched flames devour her home on TV after bolting the area on Wednesday.
“I don’t know how to tell you in words what it felt like,” Coyne told the Associated Press. “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever felt in my whole life.”
A separate blaze threatened a historic bridge as it spread about 100 miles southwest of Denver.
The Royal Gorge fire, burning about 15 miles from Canon City, had charred about 3,000 acres and was 20 percent contained Wednesday evening. The fire continued to burn among stands of juniper and pinon trees, and was expected to present a challenge to firefighters on Thursday, the Colorado Office of Emergency Management said.
Twenty structures have been destroyed by the fire, authorities said at a press conference on Wednesday night. The fire is burning on both sides of the Royal Gorge Bridge, which stretches more than 950 feet above the Arkansas River, and is surrounded by theme park attractions.
“We do know that many buildings on the property were a catastrophic loss, but an assessment of the actual damage is still unknown,” Peggy Gair, a spokeswoman for the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, told local paper the Canon City Daily Record on Wednesday. “We had an orderly evacuation yesterday afternoon around noon, so we are extremely happy to report that all employees are OK, and all guests are evacuated safely.”
The Royal Gorge fire forced the evacuation of 900 prisoners from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility outside Canon City to other prisons on Tuesday.
“We are not 100 percent certain that any portion of that line will hold under extreme fire conditions,” Fire Information Officer Gregg Goodland said of the Royal Gorge fire on Thursday, according to the Canon City Daily Record. “We have knocked a good portion of this fire down with some great firefighting work overnight, and throughout the day yesterday, but we are not going to call any of it contained until firefighters feel more confident about that.”
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